Microbiome/Microbiota Research

The Human Microbiome consists of all of the good (symbiotic) and bad (pathogenic) bacteria that co-exist with human cells in our body. Microbiome and microbiota are rapidly expanding field of research as we learn more about the number, variety and nature of these bacteria. Because of their small size, the total weight of bacteria in the average human body is on the order of a few pounds. However, the actual number of bacteria that inhabit the average human body is staggering. The average human body contains roughly 10 trillion human cells, and over 100 trillion bacteria!

Hudson Robotics’ instruments are small with with an open design for easy physical and software integration with other manufactures’ instruments to create unique workcells for a wide range of applications such as microbiome additions and subtractions, host interaction modulation and microbiome modulation studies. Research on gastrointestinal disorders, infectious diseases, metabolic disorders, immunology, oncology and CNS are all possible using Hudson technologies.

Anaerobic Chambers:

RapidPick SP in Anaerobic Chamber

Hudson Robotics can help researchers that are studying the microbiota (gut microbiome) with our small form factor, automated tools for bacterial colony-picking, sample preparation, DNA extraction, plasmid preparation and DNA normalization. Hudson Robotics’ RapidPick Automated Colony-Picking Systems and SOLO Robotics Pipettors are able to work inside anaerobic chambers, to relieve researchers of the unpleasant hours spent manually handling samples in the anaerobic environment.

The Hudson SOLO™ liquid handling robot is an automated pipettor that can do anything expected of a hand-held pipettor, perfectly. It is about half the cost of other laboratory robotics platforms and has options of 4, 6, 8, 10, or 12 microplate nests on the deck. The SOLO will fit into most biological safety cabinets, anaerobic chambers and fume hoods. The SOLO can be loaded and operated manually, but is also compatible with robotic arms from most manufacturers, including our PlateCrane EX. The small footprint and open design of the SOLO automated pipettor provides easy integration with accessories, such as heating and cooling nests, incubators, magnetic bead nests, automatable centrifuges, microplate readers and more. Our SoftLinx lab automation software has software Plug-ins to over 200 3rd party lab instruments.

The RapidPick MP is the fastest, most accurate automated multi-pin colony picking system in the world with over 99% inoculation rates and typical speeds of picking over 2,400 bacterial colonies per hour. The small footprint saves lab space, allows for easy cleaning and fits into anaerobic chambers for microbiota research and biosafety hoods. The RapiPick MP is at the heart of the Complete and Lite systems which include robotic plate loading, media filling as well as other features, such as plate sealing in the RapidPick Complete Workcell.

The RapidPick MP is intended for researchers who need the accuracy and high outgrowth rates of the RapidPick colony-picker, but whose workload doesn’t require the added automation available in the Complete or Lite systems.

Hudson’s RapidPick SP is a single-pin version of Hudson’s widely acclaimed RapidPick multi-pin colony-picker and re-arrayer. Like the RapidPick and RapidPick Lite, the RapidPick SP has all the features needed by users in today’s molecular biology environment.

Hudson Robotics has developed a unique, automated picker for microbial and fungal samples in microplates or omnitrays. The RapidPick Harvester™ identifies and extracts sample plugs of stem cell clusters, microbial colonies, or fungal samples grown on agar or in semi-solid media.